all entailed on herself, family jewels, savings.
Oh, I assure you she is very charming.
Jessica talks without thinking."

There was some scorn in Mr. Conway's
face, and Miss Jessica, who was as quickly
intelligent as she was quickly sensitive, saw
it there. It made her move impatiently in
her chair.

"What! an estate for miles, savings,
family jewels!" repeated Mr. Conway,
quietly, and without any appearance of
sarcasm. " She must be beautiful!"

"A really fine woman!" said the doctor,
pleased. " Oh, there's no doubt about the
money."

"It's wonderful!" continued Mr. Conway,
as if ruminating; " and I have a conviction
she must be good and pious and
charitable, and have every virtue. Am I
right?"

"You are, indeed, Mr. Conway— a true
man of judgment, I see."

"You are making fun of us, Mr.
Conway," said Miss Jessica, in so excited a
tone that the German prince, working at
his food with vigour, looked up with surprise.
"You are trying to draw us out,
rustic people —you who have travelled
about and seen the world. O! It is great
sport— you who have  ——"

"JESSICA!" her father thundered, his
fork in the air.

"See, he can't deny it. He has too much
truth. No," she added, her eyes questioning
him, " you will not!" He was a little confused.
"She is beautiful because she has
money; she is good for the same reason.
Papa was entrapped into saying it."

"Oh, come, come, now, do stop," said the
clergyman, very hotly and roughly; " there
is always something of this sort. You
musn't be getting into this kind of business,
putting out our little lunch in this
way. It's really too much. I won't have
it in my house. Really, you ought to beg
Mr. Conway's pardon."

Jessica stood up, and repeated slowly,
"Beg Mr. Conway's pardon!" She then
gave a scornful look all round,
and walked towards the door.

The prince had jumped up to open it.
"The ladies leaving us already?" he said,
with a foreigner's tact. " These cruel
English customs of yours!"

Mr. Conway rose, too, but said nothing.

Doctor Bailey was quite " put out;" his
lips inflated and collapsed again. " I don't
know what you will think of us?" he said;
" she is self- willed, you know, and really I
must have her taught control and—— "

"We must not spoil this good wine
with any scolding of Miss Bailey," said the
other. " For my part, I admire nature
and spirit. Apropos of the heiress, though
we own to being curious —every one is
about the sights and shows, lions and
lionesses of a district ——"

"Most natural, most natural,"
obsequiously said the doctor.

"The contrast between her and your
daughter I can quite imagine. I know
nothing more intolerable than the
perpetual challenge of wealth, a sort of
concrete arrogance, the buying your way, as
it were, buying the pas, too, every moment.
I know it would grate on me, and fret me to death."

The doctor did not follow this refining
at all. The idea of money " grating " or
"fretting " to death! At that moment he
formed the conclusion that the Honourable
Mr. Conway was " a poor creature full of
young ladies' talk." " I don't know about
that," he said, " but I wish my son Tom
had her"

Then the gentlemen talked of the baronet
himself, who had left his card at the yacht,
and again came back the curious relation
of Colonel Dudley.

"I have known that sort of shepherd's
dog attendance," said Conway, " before
now. A man is unhappy in his own home,
and he finds a soothing feeling in the
company of some congenial face. He asks no
more, to breathe the same air is enough.
He would not care if it went on so for
years. I daresay he travels about with
them as one of the retinue. It tranquillises
him."

"Precisely, but a great drawback to her
advancement, you know. He scowls at
every man that comes up."

"And if one had a son," said Conway,
smiling, " most unpleasant. But one should
never mind his scowls."

Doctor Bailey was presently showing
his visitors the "grounds" and gardens.
"My hothouse," " my greenhouse," " my
gardens," his general stately "my," which
was really the point of what he was
exhibiting. This was for the German prince,
who resigned himself with the sad dreamy
politeness of his country. Conway went
to the drawing-room.

Jessica, in a pale green striped dress,
was walking up and down with stately
pacing. She seemed to be talking haughtily
to some invisible companion; not to her
mother, who was in the more congenial
" housekeeper's-room," the locality where